


i'll still hear your voice

by arctics (antarcticas)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Driving, F/M, Love, Sweaters, antxrcticas' Zutara Prompts February 2021, i have no idea how that's a tag but okay ao3 thank you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29481954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antarcticas/pseuds/arctics
Summary: She feels at peace and at home. He doesn't answer her. The radio plays. She wonders if she wants him to answer her.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35
Collections: Zutara February Flash Fics





	i'll still hear your voice

**Author's Note:**

> day eight: sweaters

"What do you think about love?" Katara opens the car window and rests her head against her seat's backrest, letting the wind blow through her wavy hair. It's a nice breeze on her face and offsets the warmth of the Caldera and the blush that the question has forced upon her features. 

Zuko drums his fingers against the driver's wheel and pulls one hand away from it to rest upon her thigh. He doesn't answer her. He's her best friend and he loves her, in some way, but he doesn't answer her. His touch is warm and he makes her shiver. "Are you cold?" he asks. 

She's not. "Yeah, a bit," she nods. "I think the south put the chill in my bones." It doesn't. She's sweating and she almost feels uncomfortable but she wants-- she can't-- she doesn't know what to say to Zuko, she doesn't know how to say no to Zuko, she doesn't know how to tell him she loves him, she doesn't know . . . she doesn't know--

He doesn't answer her. He pulls over on the country road and stops the engine for a moment and slides his bright red sweater over his head-- she watches his arms flex with her breath in her throat-- and hands it over to her. When she can't quite grasp the enormity of the moment, or just what to do, he smiles at her and takes off her seatbelt, sliding the fabric-- it smells like cinders and freshly burnt wood and something warm-- over her. She settles into it, and his fingers ghost her cheek as she settles back down. 

The car starts and Zuko starts the radio and plays some sort of lonely, dreamy, whimsical tune, something that makes her want to fall apart and fall in love, and Katara looks outside at the rolling hills on their path. Zuko's hand finds itself on her seat, and as a second beats, and her heart stops, Katara puts her hand on top of his. 

She feels at peace and at home. He doesn't answer her. The radio plays. She wonders if she wants him to answer her. 

"What do you mean?" he finally asks. "About love. What do you want to know?"

"Do you believe in love?"

"Yes," he says. "Of course I do. I love you, and it's hard but I think I love Azula. I love Aang and Toph and Sokka and Suki. It's something so important to me."

"That's one kind of love." Katara cranes her head as far out the window as she can until her hair is untangling itself in the wind and she's lost in another world, another place, another love. She has one anchor-- Zuko's hand, grasping her hard on the winding streets, warm and unforgivable. She closes her eyes and screams out to him, her face outside. "What about the other kind? What about . . ."

"Romance?" he screams back to her. She refuses to look at him. "I don't know," he admits. "I don't always think I can love."

Katara leans back inside and crawls up, somehow, into a ball, like she can keep this moment with Zuko's hand and Zuko's sweater forever. Her right hand clutches the loose collar. "I don't think so. I think you can."

Zuko's hand moves back on her arm, and he thumbs her palm and then the loose threads, crimson against her skin, that she's playing with. "Maybe," he says. "Maybe one day, with the right person."

Katara can work with that. 


End file.
